Council set to shut swimming pools over £1m costs

Councillors will be told ahead of a vote that neither Nye Bevan Pool or The Park Pool are financially viable

Two leisure centres have been earmarked for permanent closure as a council seeks ways to save money.

Councillors in West Lancashire will be asked to vote next week to shut the Park Pool in Ormskirk and Nye Bevan in Skelmersdale.

It comes after a council report found that continuing to run the centres was not financially viable - even at reduced hours or by increasing membership fees.

Local residents previously raised concerns about the potential loss of the pools, but the authority said it would now "press ahead" with plans for new leisure facilities "funded through capital projects".

The report from the director of planning, economy and wellbeing said if both swimming pools were kept open it would cost the council more than £1m next year.

It said the council needed that money to "reduce the amount of savings that we need to make next year and in the year after so that we can set a balanced budget and still maintain an acceptable level of reserves".

'No money left'

Councillor Carl Coughlan, lead member for leisure, said he was "disappointed" to see the recommendation, but there was "no money left to continue subsidising the centres".

He said if councillors voted in favour of the closures the authority would "press ahead with plans for new leisure facilities in West Lancashire, which can be funded through capital projects".

A petition gathered more than 6,000 signatures to stop the closure of the two swimming pools.

Three Labour councillors become independents amid "anger" over the plans.

One told a full council debate that any leisure centre closures without replacements being built would be a "betrayal of both towns".

However, a "no confidence" motion by the Our West Lancashire group, which singled out Coughlan and council leader Yvonne Gagen over the row, was narrowly defeated last December.

Coughlan said the council's goal was to "create modern, financially sustainable facilities" as demonstrated by the successful £3.3m refurbishment of the Burscough Wellbeing & Leisure Hub.